Iraq's al-Maliki wants full control

Will press U.S. to put security forces under his command.

Will press U.S. to put security forces under his command.

November 29, 2006|ALEXANDRA ZAVIS and PETER WALLSTEN Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will push for the U.S. military to relinquish control over his nation's security forces when he meets President Bush today to discuss a strategy to quell raging violence in Iraq, aides and political insiders said Tuesday. Frustrated by U.S. accusations that he isn't doing enough, al-Maliki says his hands are tied as long as he does not have the authority to deploy forces as he sees fit. He wants Bush to accelerate the training of the army and police, fund more recruits and provide them with bigger and better weapons, lawmakers briefed by al-Maliki said Tuesday. Al-Maliki also will insist at a two-day summit in Jordan beginning today that his government should drive negotiations with Iraq's neighbors, Iran and Syria, they said. Al-Maliki's emboldened stand comes at a time of uncertainty for U.S. strategy in Iraq. Bush is under pressure to make changes after Democrats swept midterm congressional elections on a wave of unhappiness about the war's results. Bush is waiting for recommendations from a bipartisan commission headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, D-Ind. Democrats want Bush to set a timeline to start drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq. But Bush maintained Tuesday there was no question of an immediate pullout. "There's one thing I'm not going to do," he said during an afternoon speech in Riga, Latvia, site of a NATO summit. "I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is completed." Bush is also under pressure to enlist the help of Iran and Syria in curbing the bloodshed. But he ruled out direct negotiation with Iran unless it halts a uranium enrichment program that could be used for nuclear weapons. While the United States mulls its options, al-Maliki's government has opened direct talks with both countries. President Jalal Talabani was in Tehran Tuesday, securing promises of assistance from his counterpart, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Talabani also has accepted an invitation to visit Syria, according to his spokesman, Hiwa Osman, reached by telephone in Tehran. The comments came on the eve of a hastily arranged summit in Jordan, where King Abdullah II will host two days of talks with Bush and al-Maliki after a week of some of the worst sectarian fighting of the Iraq war. At least 215 people were killed in a massive car bomb assault Thursday in a Shiite Muslim slum of Baghdad, a stronghold of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his al-Mahdi militia. Hundreds more died in days of reprisal attacks, as Shiite and Sunni militiamen pounded neighborhoods with mortars and gunfire. As the toll mounted, Iraqis on both sides of the sectarian divide directed their anger at the United States and demanded an immediate pullout. "If the Americans withdraw, the fighting will stop," said Iraq's most revered Sunni cleric, Sheik Harith Dhari, in Jordan where he met with Abdullah in the run-up to the summit. "Once Americans make the decision to withdraw, whether it is in one or two years, we can go to the resistance and tell them you have what you have been fighting for." But other Sunnis trapped in Baghdad's strife-torn neighborhoods said they have no one else to turn to for protection. They accused Iraq's Shiite-dominated police force of turning a blind eye to sectarian death squads and even colluding with them. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni bloc in Parliament, found himself calling for U.S. help when gunmen attacked his home over the weekend. "I think that without the Americans, there will be a security vacuum and the result will be civil war," he said Tuesday. Bush said he intends to ask questions of al-Maliki, rather than provide some of his own solutions. "My questions to him will be: What do we need to do to succeed? What is your strategy in dealing with the sectarian violence?" Bush told reporters in the Estonian capital, Tillann, en route to the Riga summit. Al-Maliki insiders said the prime minister's answer will be to tell U.S. commanders to give the Iraqi government full control over its security forces. "This will not happen overnight; it needs a lot of preparation," said Haider al-Abadi, a lawmaker from al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party. "We need to build our forces, we need to train them, we need to arm them properly ... But if we can achieve a timeline, we will have achieved a lot." U.S. and Iraqi officials also expect Talabani's visit to Iran to come up at a breakfast meeting Thursday. Khamenei blamed American policies for the current violence and told Talabani Tuesday that Iran considered it a "religious and humane duty" to help establish security in Iraq, according to his office's Web site. Bush said he had no objection to Iraq's talks with Iran, which hopes to counter U.S. influence in the region through its involvement in Iraq. "Iraq is a sovereign nation which is conducting its own foreign policy. They're having talks with their neighbors," Bush said. "If that's what they think, they ought to do, that's fine. I hope their talks yield results."